Barnstable County Matters: It’s a matter of opinion

Friday

Oct 12, 2012 at 2:00 AM

I get ideas from many sources. A recent one was a "Dilbert" strip on opinions.

County Commissioner Bill Doherty

I get ideas from many sources. A recent one was a “Dilbert” strip on opinions. The context had to do with how we arrive at differentiate between informed and uninformed opinions and what basis is used to hold them. The parallel seems to follow how public opinion is formed on issues that need community support. They make the point that uninformed opinions that make you feel good are preferable to doing the hard work it takes to assemble and assess the hard data to validate an informed opinion.

Shall I suggest a list?

The county is using a deliberative process to collect hard data to verify an informed opinion on wastewater management policy, the right process to support the shellfish aquaculture industry, which items to pursue with regard to the report of the Special Committee on Governance, what internal changes in service delivery management are beneficial, what are the most useful paths to follow to put in place a strategy to prevent suicides, on the elements of responsive emergency plans for dealing with natural and manmade disasters, the organization of a communication system to respond to individual citizens’ needs and robust enough to remain in operation for a regional emergency, what support is needed to deal with a significant nuclear accident at Pilgrim and, far from the least important, how to choose which predictive measures are more useful to determine external revenue sources and amounts to validate budget planning?

The step-by-step process to vet any action by a public body is a time-consuming one. In my training, to follow a course of evaluation that ends in a rejection was seen to be a part of a cumulative system that aided in making the choice of a successful alternative action a defendable one. Because public bodies act at least in theory to support the public interest it implies that the body has and has taken the needed time to do the due diligence to inform those actions. Shooting from the “lip” gets a headline; aiming at and using the correct ammunition captures the target. However, it does not always satisfy the desire that solutions be evident and quickly accessible.

Other agencies that operate in the region face decisions based on (we hope) informed decisions. The Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority has expanded fixed route coverage for the whole Cape and plans to introduce weekend rail service next year from Boston. The Cape Light Compact has rather than operating completely independently accepted the responsibility of implementing and managing a state program design for providing energy efficiency services. The Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative has chosen to pursue the alternative energy strategy of solar generation in light of community resistance and unfavorable regulatory action by the Cape Cod Commission on land-based wind.

The last brings up another element that was not mentioned in the “Dilbert” reference. Sometimes more attention is paid to the decibel level than the validity of a narrowly but intensely held opinion. Or as my father would say, the louder the drum beats outside the worse the show is inside the tent, but it does get attention. He also said that when people assume that “where there is smoke, there’s fire,” they forget that dry ice generates smoke.

This brings me to what season it is. In a couple of weeks, you have a chance to vote. You can vote for the people that you believe will deliver the leadership that the community needs at the county, state and federal levels. I would plead with you to exercise a franchise that is based on your study and understanding of the facts. I would hope that you would do the hard work to gather and verify them. And I would hope that would indeed inform your opinion and give a rational basis to feel good about that opinion.